nhornby51743
Gold Level Poster
My PC is officially one year old, so I thought I'd provide an update regarding my experience with PCS over the past 12 months. The original review which I typed up last year was a candid, although balanced summary of my experience, but this was rejected from the testimonials section, so this time around I decided to post an up to date review on the forum section for those who wish to view it.
I purchased my rig last August and it arrived 12th September 2014. I was really happy with my computer, it looked great and the cable management was top notch. Upon turning it on I discovered that the front USB ports did not work and promptly returned it. When it was with PCS for the 3 days a few other faults besides the damaged motherboard were recognised, and were promptly fixed. During it's first RMA the GTX 970 was released so I purchased one and PCS fitted it, and although the 970 didn't come with a free game at the time they were nice enough to include an 8GB USB stick and a copy of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! for the trouble that I'd had.
When I received my rig back after the first RMA I noticed that that I/O shield was not fitted correctly and some gromits from the top of the case were missing, this didn't really bother me too much as it didn't look like either of these things would pose a real issue. Fast forward to August this year and I got in contact with PCS regarding upgrading my GTX 970 to a GTX 980 Ti and was told that the card would work perfectly fine in my rig, and I would not see any bottleneck, except in a few CPU intensive games.
The card was delivered the next day and I was immediately experience performance issues on games, so I spent two days trying to solve the issue and eventually the GPU was RMA'd. The second 980 Ti I received was suffering the same issues, so this time my pc was RMA'd as it was believed that the issue lay elsewhere. After a few days I got in touch with PCS and was informed (in a roundabout way) that there was a CPU bottleneck to some degree and that the second card was found to be faulty as well. I explained to the advisor that I was unhappy with being sold the card as I was informed that there would be zero bottleneck in games that were not CPU intensive, whilst the advisor did offer a refund I did not want to go back to using a lower tier card so I stuck with the 980 Ti.
A few days later, now into early September, I received my rig back to find the inside back panel was covered in dirt and the front USB ports weren't working as one of the motherboard pins was bent. I immediately RMA'd and was told 4 days in that there was not a problem with the system and it worked fine. I was extremely annoyed by this as I had checked the computer several times before RMA'ing, so it appeared to me that the technician had just bent the pin back into place, as opposed to replacing the motherboard. I rang PCS and spoke to a manager who informed me that he did not know how to resolve the issue(as he had never experienced a conflict of interest before) and said he would get the technician, who had looked at my computer, to get in touch the following day before my computer would be shipped back out to me.
The following day came and the computer was shipped first thing before anyone had bothered to get in touch so I gave PCS a ring and asked why the technician had claimed that there was not an issue with my computer when I had tested it and saw that the motherboard was damaged. I asked the advisor if the technician had done any work and he informed me that the computer was actually faulty and that the technician had carefully nudged it back into place, basically using semantics to get out of acknowledging that the pin was bent back into place (something which PCS claim is unacceptable practice) I asked the advisor why the technicians notes claimed no work was undertaken, although the advisor just stated that he would make sure that the notes would be amended to reflect that work had indeed been carried out(this was never updated). Due to the issues that I'd had, and the fact that PCS refused to replace the motherboard, I asked for an extension on my warranty for the motherboard as the warranty ran out that very same day, but this was declined.
My rig arrived from it's 3rd RMA on Saturday the 12th September, and it worked perfectly fine. What I did discover was the packing for my pc accessories that I'd left in a box within the box were missing and 2 of the feet from the bottom of the computer were also missing. I gave PCS a ring and they stated that the stuff would be returned to me by Tuesday and the technician would be in touch first thing Monday. Monday came and no-one got in touch, and today I received the feet for my pc, although I was still missing the original boxes.
If you managed to sit through all this and read this you can see that my experience has been pretty crappy the last few months. I am aware that PCS have many happy customers, my friend brought a laptop in December and has had only one minor issue to date, although for me this is the last time I would buy a full rig from PC Specialist. If you're a potential first time buyer I would weigh up my options before making a purchase, although I personally can't recommend them anymore as purchasing a computer on the hope that it will have zero issues is just too risky a venture.
Cheers, Nick
I purchased my rig last August and it arrived 12th September 2014. I was really happy with my computer, it looked great and the cable management was top notch. Upon turning it on I discovered that the front USB ports did not work and promptly returned it. When it was with PCS for the 3 days a few other faults besides the damaged motherboard were recognised, and were promptly fixed. During it's first RMA the GTX 970 was released so I purchased one and PCS fitted it, and although the 970 didn't come with a free game at the time they were nice enough to include an 8GB USB stick and a copy of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! for the trouble that I'd had.
When I received my rig back after the first RMA I noticed that that I/O shield was not fitted correctly and some gromits from the top of the case were missing, this didn't really bother me too much as it didn't look like either of these things would pose a real issue. Fast forward to August this year and I got in contact with PCS regarding upgrading my GTX 970 to a GTX 980 Ti and was told that the card would work perfectly fine in my rig, and I would not see any bottleneck, except in a few CPU intensive games.
The card was delivered the next day and I was immediately experience performance issues on games, so I spent two days trying to solve the issue and eventually the GPU was RMA'd. The second 980 Ti I received was suffering the same issues, so this time my pc was RMA'd as it was believed that the issue lay elsewhere. After a few days I got in touch with PCS and was informed (in a roundabout way) that there was a CPU bottleneck to some degree and that the second card was found to be faulty as well. I explained to the advisor that I was unhappy with being sold the card as I was informed that there would be zero bottleneck in games that were not CPU intensive, whilst the advisor did offer a refund I did not want to go back to using a lower tier card so I stuck with the 980 Ti.
A few days later, now into early September, I received my rig back to find the inside back panel was covered in dirt and the front USB ports weren't working as one of the motherboard pins was bent. I immediately RMA'd and was told 4 days in that there was not a problem with the system and it worked fine. I was extremely annoyed by this as I had checked the computer several times before RMA'ing, so it appeared to me that the technician had just bent the pin back into place, as opposed to replacing the motherboard. I rang PCS and spoke to a manager who informed me that he did not know how to resolve the issue(as he had never experienced a conflict of interest before) and said he would get the technician, who had looked at my computer, to get in touch the following day before my computer would be shipped back out to me.
The following day came and the computer was shipped first thing before anyone had bothered to get in touch so I gave PCS a ring and asked why the technician had claimed that there was not an issue with my computer when I had tested it and saw that the motherboard was damaged. I asked the advisor if the technician had done any work and he informed me that the computer was actually faulty and that the technician had carefully nudged it back into place, basically using semantics to get out of acknowledging that the pin was bent back into place (something which PCS claim is unacceptable practice) I asked the advisor why the technicians notes claimed no work was undertaken, although the advisor just stated that he would make sure that the notes would be amended to reflect that work had indeed been carried out(this was never updated). Due to the issues that I'd had, and the fact that PCS refused to replace the motherboard, I asked for an extension on my warranty for the motherboard as the warranty ran out that very same day, but this was declined.
My rig arrived from it's 3rd RMA on Saturday the 12th September, and it worked perfectly fine. What I did discover was the packing for my pc accessories that I'd left in a box within the box were missing and 2 of the feet from the bottom of the computer were also missing. I gave PCS a ring and they stated that the stuff would be returned to me by Tuesday and the technician would be in touch first thing Monday. Monday came and no-one got in touch, and today I received the feet for my pc, although I was still missing the original boxes.
If you managed to sit through all this and read this you can see that my experience has been pretty crappy the last few months. I am aware that PCS have many happy customers, my friend brought a laptop in December and has had only one minor issue to date, although for me this is the last time I would buy a full rig from PC Specialist. If you're a potential first time buyer I would weigh up my options before making a purchase, although I personally can't recommend them anymore as purchasing a computer on the hope that it will have zero issues is just too risky a venture.
Cheers, Nick
